Chasing Darkness
by fantacination
Summary: Chapter 3 up! Axel, Riku,and Roxas are on a quest to find Sora who, along with Diz and Namine, is missing. Roxas wants to find his memories, Riku wants to find his best friend, and Axel? He just wants to remember how to exist. Future AkuRikuRoku
1. Twilight Town: Doors Open

**Recommended reading setting**: dark background, 1/2 page width.

**STORY NOTES/WARNINGS AT BOTTOM.**

**Disclaimer**: Kingdom Hearts belongs to Square Enix and Disney. This story is nonprofit and is not intended to be taken as a completely accurate reflection of the characters.

* * *

**..:Chasing Darkness:..**

_by fantacination_

**~*/*\*~**

**

* * *

  
**

**0. **

**Prologue**

Roxas, stop! You can't take them on your own yet!

_The cry echoes through his head, sharp and urgent. For a moment, Roxas takes his eyes off his opponent and looks around. Because it's her, it has to be her! And he can almost, almost remember her name, if only he could see her! If only he could remember what face was behind her voice._

_But there is nothing around them but empty concrete and pounding rain seeping into his hair, dripping down onto his neck and the cobblestones. _

_And then suddenly the imposter, the guy with the silver hair, is beside him. _

"_I'm taking you back," that voice says. Roxas turns, but before he can react, the blow lands on his neck. _

_The darkness snuffs the light. _

_

* * *

  
_

**I.**

**Doors open when windows close**

It was eerily quiet when Riku got back.

Roxas was in his arms like a kidnapped princess- if they came blonde, feisty, and capable of running up buildings and knocking you over with the blunt side of a Keyblade. He had never expected the Nobody- Roxas- to be so strong, easily levels above...her.

Grimacing when the side of his ribs and his arm twinged, Riku carried Roxas' limp, unconscious form to the dusty, unused bed in his room. His muscles protested every tug, the weight of Roxas' body, but somehow, he managed to bring him to the edge of the bed, sliding him onto it. Pain spiked through the bruises and cuts from Oathkeeper, insistently informing Riku that he had come far too close to losing. Far too close to having no other choice but to use the Darkness.

But now wasn't a time for that.

Riku made his way to the tiny closet in his room, rummaging and unearthing a few dusty potions. He cracked the seal on one, swigging it down without tasting the medicinal tang. The other bottles he slipped into his pockets for later.

After a moment, he breathed easier, the potion dulling the pain to a faint throb. He carelessly dropped the empty vial on the table, wincing when the glass rolled straight over the edge and crashed to the ground, glass fragments skittering over the ground. The sound of it jarred, breaking the silence.

Silence. Why was it so quiet? There was hardly ever any noise at the Diz's base, not between a caged artist and a fallen scientist.

Still, it was strange, this almost deathly quiet. DiZ wasn't one for excess noise, but he couldn't avoid breathing any more than the next person. One of the few assurances Riku had that the man was actually alive rather than a sentient mummified corpse. Sometimes, he'd hear Namine singing softly to herself, too.

"DiZ?" Riku frowned, stepping out of his room. He spared a glance for Roxas, sleeping dreamlessly on the bed, before deciding that the blonde probably wasn't going anywhere. He had to find the others first. He had to tell Namine that Roxas was here.

"DiZ? Namine?" Riku repeated into the dimness, his footsteps echoing like bones clacking in a mausoleum. The entire manor never seemed to have enough electricity for light, relying instead on huge skylights and windows to illuminate the ancient wooden floors and dust-heavy tapestries.

He opened his mouth to call again, to tell them about Roxas-but his mouth dried before he could form the words as he entered DiZ's laboratory.

The mansion laboratory was empty. Not a single soul- or even a fragment of it- to be seen. Papers were still strewn on the table. The computers that had been humming with DiZ's incomprehensible programming were shut down and silent.

The coffee pot Diz had salvaged from some unknown world was still where it had always been, the murky brown liquid inside it cold and stale.

Heartless? Nobodies? But it was too neat- no tables overturned, no tell-tale marks of claws on the furniture nor faint lingering taint of Darkness or Nothing. Nothing to indicate that a non-existence and two that might as well be, had been living here.

An icy, strange fear was starting to creep over his senses, dread and suspicion forming a hard little knot in the pit of his stomach. Without quite meaning to, he ran into the sleeping chamber, already knowing what he would not find.

"…No," Riku whispered harshly.

The pod that had contained his best friend yawned open and empty at him, mocking.

Sora was gone. Namine was gone. DiZ was gone. Sora was gone.

"DiZ! Where are you?! Where is everyone?? This better not be one of your stupid mind games!"

But no answer came. Not even from Nobody.

And Riku's world was starting to fray, edges unraveling like a spool of thread, deep into a dark abyss.

Riku wasn't sure what happened next. Just that suddenly the room was suffocating, the world spinning and spinning in his head. Anger, confusion, wherewherewhere? Why? – What had DiZ done now? And the whispers in his head was getting louder, the cloying sweet dark-tainted lies of Ansem trying to pull him in, trying to take advantage of his confusion and amplifying weakness. Give in, give in, what you want you will get when you give in to me.

"STOP IT!" Riku yelled, throwing his arm out. Darkness lashed around him, barely controllable, and Ansem was laughing and laughing, his deep voice reverberating between Riku's ears. He shut it away, throwing that laughing Darkness as far back into his own head as he could. But it was never far enough, the taint of it leaving hooks in his mind, ever-present, only waiting.

Like the tick tock of a clock in the pit of a monstrous belly.

Riku steadied himself on a table, willing the rampant Darkness to disappear. He needed to do something. He needed a plan. But nothing was coming to him, his mind failing each turn of thought when once they would have come tumbling into existence, ever since he could remember. Ever since he had been a headstrong brat at the top of the island food chain.

Damn it, he needed to do something. There had to be a clue. There had to be something. Anything at all!

He searched the papers, DiZ's and Namine's room, the empty pods in the chamber. But there was nothing that hadn't been there when he last came back to replenish his stash of potions.

Papers- the same as ever. Obscure reports in numbers and DiZ's spiky, neat handwriting. Drawings- Namine's, each one as cheerfully colored as the next. His extra supplies- untouched, in the brown bag that the King had given him before they parted ways.

It was almost as if they had all disappeared into thin air.

Nothing.

Riku slammed a fist into a table already broken by Ansem's attempt to take over him. He'd been tricked. Sent out so Diz could make his escape, taking both Sora and Namine with him. What other explanation could there be?

Finally, Riku stumbled dazedly into the perpetual twilight, standing at the manor gates with nothing but questions and a single tiny stub of a color pencil he couldn't even remember picking up.

It wasn't until he heard the footsteps behind him that he remembered the boy he'd left in his room.

---

Call it a hunch, but Axel had sort of figured that hey, if _he_ were a temperamental blonde best friend (Dark only knew how it was even possible, sans heart), there was really only one world special enough to go to. Familiar enough that your feet led you there without you knowing, before you knew where to go.

There was always something about the place you were born that called you back to it.

He'd slipped one hand into his coat pocket, fiddling the worn pale bit of printed wood in his pocket and ignored ice cream stores and running misfits, nonchalantly searching every nook and cranny of a town that seemed to sleep even when it didn't.

It was a simple process of elimination that had made him duck through the crack in the wall and cross an abandoned orchard.

But he hadn't thought he'd meet Riku there, clutching the brick façade of the wall like it was the only thing keeping him upright. Riku with his bright, slightly annoying heart, like a signature if you knew where to look. If it was pulsing, rife with emotions, like a desperate scream in the night.

And suddenly Axel knew. Pieces fell into place. The 'Impostor' was right in front of him. And there was something else. A friend who had acted strangely. But Axel had only ever had two friends, one had forgotten his heart. The other had left.

"You been busy, lately, Riku?" he drawled carelessly, walking up to the teen. The grass had withered in the perpetual summer heat, crunching helplessly under his boots like so much kindle. Very good kindle.

Riku turned, looking at him with blindfolded eyes.

Axel raised an eyebrow. Interesting accessory choice. Not really what he'd recommend for your aim.

"Prick your eyes on a spindle, princess?"

Riku scowled, a sword materializing in his hand with a flash of Darkness. "Did you want yours done?"

"Is that any way to talk to the guy who saved your best friend?" Axel heaved an exaggerated sigh, feigning disappointment as easily as the practiced motion of his grins.

"You mean use him to assassinate your buddies," Riku said flatly. The Darkness was starting to gather around him, now, obscuring the brightness of his heart, wrapping tightly around it until the light disappeared.

"One good turn deserved another." Axel shrugged. He weighed the merits of summoning his weapons… But no, not yet.

"But hey, let's not talk about you. Any chance you've seen someone I know? Short, blonde, and angry as hell?"

Riku's shoulders tensed. Bingo, give yourself a prize, because He-Who-Can't-Get-Over-Things knows something. Axel's even willing to bet that it's several somethings.

"Since when did you get so careless as to lose things?" Riku sank into a distinctive ready stance, subtly moving away from the wall so he could get a little room to swing.

Dark spirals of flame collected in Axel's hands, whirling tightly in the center of his clenched fists. "Since they started leaving, I guess." Heavy silver weighed against hands as his chakrams materialized.

Suddenly, a Corridor burst into existence at the edge of the dying lawn, the Darkness flaring like the end of a comet briefly before stabilizing into the threshold of a portal.

When in doubt, shoot first.

You might not be able to ask a corpse questions, but a corpse couldn't ask, either.

Axel flung the heavy wheel of a chakram at the portal. He barely had time to register the spiky blonde hair before his chakram clanged off of the side of a Keyblade, sparks flying.

---

Roxas had woken to an unfamiliar room, feeling vaguely sick and probably concussed. He had been on a bed, but it hadn't been one he recognized. The sheets had been covered in a fine layer of dust- like it had never been used. Or not in a very long time. But he hadn't been tied up and the building had been quiet. So he had created an exit from the Darkness and made his swift escape…

Headfirst into a heavy spiked, wickedly sharp, and vastly familiar chakram.

"_Roxas_?"

"What- _Axel_?" Roxas' eyes hardened, the betrayal too fresh to be kind. "So they sent you?" He fell into a defensive crouch, the Keyblades he had instinctively materialized gripped in both hands.

The warm rays of twilight struck Oathkeeper's gleaming metal, an illusion of fire chasing down it's blade. Oblivion, on the other hand, simply absorbed the light, an eternal black hole. Both Keyblades hummed with energy, their weight almost as comforting as nearly a year's battle experience. He had never fought Axel. Hadn't even thought of the possibility until the day he'd left.

But trust, like glass, cut deep when broken.

"Saix was still knocked out, last I checked. You really did a number on him," Axel remarked conversationally.

Roxas frowned. "So you're not on Saix's orders?"

"I'm not on anyone's orders, Roxas," Axel said simply. "I'm just here," he added, one leg stepping back and body curving low, "to bring you back."

Roxas should've expected it from the moment Axel had appeared but he barely reacted in time anyway.

Axel burst forth, swinging heavy silver chakrams at Roxas' head, aiming to knock him out. Roxas sprang back, dodging the swing and spearing light in his former best friend's face. Axel faltered, momentarily blind. And then fire roared to life all around them, ringing them both in a personal arena. Heat scorched Roxas' back, searing straight through the black leather. Nowhere to run but by portal. And nowhere safe to portal that wouldn't get him skewered with the arc of a thrown chakram.

"Two can play the elemental game, Roxas." Axel swung, the chakrams a deadly, razorsharp airborn chainsaw.

Not bothering to reply, Roxas ducked underneath the first wheel, charging forward and striking just below Axel's chest with the dull back edge of Oathkeeper.

Axel winced like he'd been stung, but he cocked his arm back and swiftly brought his fist down on the back of Roxas' head. Roxas jerked his body sideways, but the blow still landed on his head, though not on target.

Stars burst in front of Roxas' eyes. Staggering back, he felt Axel's hands close around his shoulders before he could fall.

"Told you. I leave the opening on purpose,"Axel snorted.

"I'm not…" Roxas gasped," going back!" Blinding white light erupted from the ground around them, spearing through Axel's body.

Axel's stunned body landed awkwardly on the grass. "Shit," he cursed, unseeing eyes staring straight at the sky as he clutched his torso and rolled to his knees. He coughed, speckles of dark blood almost invisible on his gloved hand.

Roxas fell to the ground next, murmuring a quick healing spell until his vision cleared, the throbbing in his head vanishing. He looked warily over at Axel, the betrayal still thick in the air.

Axel stared right back, blood speckled around his lips. "You don't get to look at me like that. You're the one who left." Slowly, the fire faded away, leaving trails of charred vegetation where it had been.

"Because you wouldn't tell me anything! Nobody did! I know I don't have a heart, but I don't even have anything else! Why? Why am I the only one..." Roxas shook his head. "And it feels like I've forgotten something. Something really important. And I can't remember anything but the Organization!"

"And? What then?" Axel sat up slowly, careful not to strain anything. "You're just going to leave like this? Hope you'll run into something while you're running away?"

"…I'll decide that when I find it."

"Find what, Roxas? The end of the line? A past you can never go back to as you are now?"

"There has to be something! I want to know the truth! About me. About my memories- who was I? Who am I?"

"Sora."

Green eyes looked sideways sharply. "You make a pretty good shadow on the wall, Riku."

Riku. That name… Roxas knew that name. Had woken with it on his lips. Right after… Castle Oblivion.

"You're Sora's Nobody."

The Impostor- _Riku_, his mind reminded, stared straight at him, eyes still shrouded in black cloth. There was something tense in the line of his back, a too-tight piano string.

"What....? Do you… Did you know who Sora was? My Somebody?"

And that seemed to break something.

Because suddenly, Riku laughed. It was brief and empty. The sort of laugh that was all air and nothing else. The sort of laugh that Roxas sometimes heard in the Fortress, when anyone there laughed at all.

"You could say I knew him. But he's gone, now."

"What?" Roxas blinked. "Of course he's gone… I'm here, right?" Nobodies were born after their Somebodies….died. Got their hearts ripped out. He'd known at least that much. From the books in the Library That Forgot. After he got sick and tired of not knowing anything and Saix had suggested he try to not be so dim in a tone so condescending it was almost as though he expected no more of him.

"He was just sleeping. Until he disappeared. They all did."

"All?" Axel interjected.

"DiZ and Namine. DiZ is some sort of scientist. He must have taken them."

Axel quieted a bit after that, thinking. Then he stood. "You heard the guy." Axel jerked his head in Riku's direction. "Your Somebody's gone."

Roxas refused to look at him. Someone knew. And for the first time, it seemed like he could actually get some answers. "He's gone, not dead. He- and the truth- are still out there somewhere. I'll just have to find him!"

"What? Do you have any idea how much longer we have before the Superior finds out?"

"I don't--- ...We?" Roxas echoed, losing steam and distracted.

Axel's chakrams vanished in a smoky imprint of Darkness.

"Damn it, Roxas. I'm still your friend!"

"Are you?" Axel had done all sorts of things. It was funny, how Roxas couldn't remember them anymore. Some of the things that he was angry about. Were they really such small things? So small that he can't even remember anymore? But they hadn't… He didn't think he would have been so petty.

Whatever Axel saw in his face, it made the redhead's jaw tighten.

Roxas continued. "A friend wouldn't have kept so many secrets about me from me."

Axel looked away. "What good would knowing do?"

"It's _my _choice, Axel. I'm going to find it on my own ."

"Not on your own."

Blinking, Roxas looked up at him. "What?"

"I'll go with you. I don't care what you think, Roxas. I'm still your friend. I don't exactly have so many that I can give you up. If... " Axel ran a hand through his hair exasperatedly. "If you're going to do this. I've got to make sure you don't die on some godforsaken backwater world. If you really have to do this, I'm in."

Roxas looked at him carefully, trying to find out how much of Axel's words were true. "I don't know… if I can still trust you anymore," he said slowly. "But if you won't try to stop me, anymore… I could use a friend."

Offering a grin, Axel agreed. "Deal."

---

"If you're looking for Sora, I'll come with you," Riku said suddenly, lowering Soul Eater as a plan finally came to mind. There was no way he was letting these two go unsupervised. Not when Sora still needed... his Other.

Both Nobodies turned to stare at him.

"You need me," Riku said grimly. "I'm the only one who met DiZ."

Axel hadn't been sure if he heard right, but it sounded kind of like Riku wanted to come with them.

Riku walked up to them, posture tense, clearly knowing full well just how crazy he sounded and determined not to let it look like it bothered him.

"It's not like either of you have any leads."

"That's what recon's for," Axel pointed out.

"There's nothing left in the mansion to make anything out of. And do you really think either Sora or Namine would come near you?"

"Hey, the little miss didn't have a problem before."

"You were going to attack her," Riku said flatly.

Axel's eyes deadened. But before he could speak, Roxas did.

"If we're going, let's go."

Meeting Axel's gaze, Roxas said simply. "He knows where I came from."

_//If I can't get answers here, I'll get them somewhere else. Somebody knows where I came from. That'll be the person I trust.//_

Axel folded his arms and shrugged, acquiescing. While surprising, Riku did have his merits. "Right," he rolled his eyes a little, wondering how he was supposed to feel about the lack of protest on Roxas' part. But hey, it wasn't his quest to find the missing Savior of Worlds and if nothing else, Riku had dedication. That and "At least he's easy on the eyes."

Riku glared, but relaxed the tiniest bit.

Which was kind of funny, actually. Axel kind of thought the guy ought to be used to teaming up with the Forces of Dubious Darkness by now.

It never ended well.

----

Axel had been seeing far too much of Oblivion, lately. More than he ever thought he would, when he first left it, empty and in ruins. In fact, his first time back, he was kind of surprised the world still existed. He'd half-expected it to fade away, just as its former inhabitants had. Well, most of its former inhabitants. But even that time had been one time too many.

"So tell me, why'd we go here again?"

"I met Diz here." Riku said shortly, banishing the remains of the portal.

With any luck, the Organization wouldn't catch on to their missing members (traitors, officially, but then what was another title?) until a couple of weeks down the line. But that didn't mean they couldn't try to hide their tracks anyway. Zexion's gift for sensing Darkness wasn't completely unique in the Organization.

"Right. The guy with the red bandages all over his face. What tipped you off on the 'possibly not trustworthy' again?" Axel flapped a hand at Riku. Given the summary of the' snap, our savior of the worlds is gone' and the general appearance of the missing suspect and possible casualty of savior-napping, Riku had been desperate when choosing his allies.

Then again, Axel had been dancing to the tune of a silver haired megalomaniac with a fondness for swirled black and white print, chained black leather, and a massive blob of collected hearts. Not much room to talk there.

Clearing his thoughts, Axel tilted his head to one side. "So how did that sweet little hook up story happen again?"

Riku scowled, obviously not appreciating the side comment. Axel gave him his widest grin. He figured he had about two weeks before he drove Riku completely insane or hammer some humor up that spike in his ass. Either way, it was going to be interesting.

Grudgingly, though, the teen started to explain. "Diz must've gotten here somehow… maybe there's a portal to his home world or a bolt hole. He might've taken Sora and Namine there."

As an in-between world, Castle Oblivion was particularly easy to get to. There were even random rips in the dimensional fabric surrounding it connected to different worlds- which was how both Riku and Sora (plus two sidekicks) had gotten in here in the first place.

Axel looked around at the bleak landscape. Apart from the castle dominating most of the world, it was pretty barren. Dull gray and black fields, their color leeched away in the perpetual night, rolled as far as the eye could see and then stopped, suddenly, its cliffs facing the boundless expanse of star spangled space.

"There aren't any other buildings above ground that we know of." The redhead shrugged. " Marluxia made sure he got to live in the biggest, tallest pointy thing in the entire world."

"I… might not be able to go inside," Roxas said.

"Why not?" Riku asked, frowning slightly as he knelt on the grass, one hand outstretched like he was trying to conjure something out of the ground. Or trying to sense something.

"Last time he was in there, he passed out," Axel replied.

Roxas frowned. He never had found out why. "It's fine. I'll try again."

"The last time you tried, you spazzed and fainted," Axel reminded helpfully.

"I know that," Roxas said grimly. "But I have to find out. Maybe this time, it wouldn't hurt so much." Roxas turned to Axel a little warily. _I want answers_, he'd said. Axel almost missed the silent killing machine he'd first partnered up with. At least he hadn't asked any unnecessary questions back then. Boring as hell and zombie-like, sure, but easy to work with. Of course, the bastard had to go and grow on him. Had to remind him of someone he'd known. Of course he had to have a fragment of a heart still inside him.

"I'm going to try," Roxas said, brooking no room for argument.

It seemed unlikely that Roxas would get another mental memory migraine from the same stimulus, but Axel privately decided that he'd haul his best friend's ass back to Twilight Town if he had to again.

Riku straightened up, standing and dusting grass from his knee. "I found a couple of portals, but they don't feel like they've been used in a while." Riku frowned. Darkness clung to his shoulders, dancing around him and lovingly trying to get under his skin, wanting to join with him.

But as Axel watched, Riku tensed slightly and the wisp disappeared, winking out of existence.

Interesting. What had Zexion said about this kid? He felt like Darkness, all right, but the heart was still there, too, strong and bright.

It was the sort of heart that made Axel's hollow chest ache in phantom pain; his fingers twitch, wanting to grasp it in his own hands and feel it burst.

But he was used to repressing that urge. It was what made them different from the Lesser Nobodies, after all.

"Only one way to find out," Axel said, and swept a hand towards the Castle.

* * *

_To be continued…_

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Next up, Castle Oblivion proper.

It seems a lot of people might not know this and the fic can get confusing for the first chapter or two because of it, so I'M LEAVING THIS SUMMARY OF DAYS HERE.

* * *

_**!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPOILER FOR DAYS THAT ARE RELEVANT TO FIC:!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**_

* * *

Basically, _Xion, _that new 14th org member girl,_ was an important part of Roxas' and Axel's lives_. To the point that Axel interceded on their behalf for Saix lots of times, they worried/took care of her when she went into a coma, and Axel actually brought her back and also let her go again. Roxas, on the other hand, was pretty much implied to be infatuated with Xion (but can be taken to just consider her a very good friend) and he was angry when Axel used force (I think he attacked her and perhaps a neck chop) to bring Xion back the first time around. Later, Xion escapes again and Xemnas tells everyone that Xion was actually _never_ human. That is, she was a replica, or a puppet.

Axel knew about this. Axel also knew that the longer Xion stayed 'alive' or with them, the worse it was for Roxas, because Xion was absorbing Roxas' strength and powers (she didn't mean to, it just happens). When Roxas realizes what Axel had done (he kept Xion's nature secret (and many other secrets (e.g. Sora) besides), and he also LET Xion go- he did nothing to make her stay the second time she leaves) he is further enraged at Axel and tells him that he cannot trust him anymore. That, basically, friends don't let friends go and friends don't keep secrets about friends. So yes, then Roxas confront Axel and he STORMS out of the castle, like nobody's business. XD; Before that, he leaves behind that one quote:

_"If I can't get answers here, I'll get them somewhere else. Somebody knows where I came from. That'll be the person I trust."_

Which, of course made me, the RikuRoku fangirl, squee "OH YOU MEAN LIKE MAYBE YOUR SOMEBODYS BEST FRIEND??" lol, it was like the time Roxas woke up after fainting in Oblivion, screaming Riku's name.

BUT when Xion 'dies', she also gets reabsorbed into Sora's memories- memories that she is 'made of' (hence her resemblance to Kairi) as far as I understand it. When Namine puts those memories back, the memories are gone- and so, XION is gone. Nobody can remember her.

So Roxas and Axel, who had been friends with her and done so much for and to her, are confused suddenly about what's going on. Why they're fighting (Roxas was angry cos Axel hurt Xion, kept her true nature hidden, and let her go- Xion and Axel couldn't bear to see Roxas 'die' because of Xion.) It makes them very , very confused. But at the same time, the feeling of distrust, of having been betrayed, is still there. For Axel less so, since his 'feelings' are based on memories and he can't remember Xion anymore.

At the start of this fic, Riku refers to 'her', which is Xion (he fought her and won, at one point- but he also 'saved' Xion). But after that, he can no longer remember her. None of them can. Xion's existence gradually disappears (during the Deep Dive fight, Riku and Roxas are already in the process of forgetting her name- this is canon.)

* * *

**SPOILERS END HERE**

* * *

**About the story**: This is a What If AU meaning it's set sort of in-game and yet twists the story. Drastically. What if Sora had gone missing before Riku could catch Roxas and bring him back? What if Riku, Roxas, and Axel start a journey to find him? There will be old worlds and new worlds, and a lot of cross-over-ing (because that's what KH is all about).

ROUGH. I recently rebooted the fic because I finished Days and realized my timeline was wrong. Way wrong. And that screwed up my entire setting, really. XP Annd yeah I won't have time for a bit, so I decided to finish this up now before I get demotivated again.

This takes place right after an **alternate ending to the Deep Dive** Riku and Roxas **fight** (Xion talks not to Riku, but Roxas, and thu distracted, left an opening for Riku to do that karate chop he used on Xion earlier in the games- I kind of thought it was strange that Xion spoke to Riku but not Roxas, anyway.). There will be **a few vague spoilers** and a handful of inside jokes/quotes (but only for the first two chapters, I think). Considering KH2 gave away all the secrets except for Xion, though, maybe not so much.

**Warnings:** It'll start off slow, and there will definitely be a lot of fun scenes, but there will be: deaths, a bit of gore. And what it really means to be heartless. Swearing is a given. :P Really, all three of them are screwed up enough that it'd be harder not to let them. Some parts might get a little M. Will up the rating at that point.

This is **future** **AkuRikuRoku**, meaning AkuRiku AND RokuRiku AND permutations thereof. It's more Riku sandwich threesome, not triangle. ;P I know, I know. Any sex scenes will probably be not as explicit as I would otherwise make them. At least, on FFN. Other pairings may be included. Definitely a strong Axel+Roxas friendship. As a romance, it's kinda undecided.

Soo, like it, hate it?Think it could use some work? (True.)** Please review and tell me what you think! :) Feed the writer!**


	2. Dust and Memories

**II.**

**Dust and Memories**

**

* * *

Location: Castle Oblivion**

**

* * *

**

Most of the rooms were dead- their memory-worlds collapsing into nothingness as the power of their cards ran out. If opened, the doors led to nothing but a yawning black hole with no sense of being. A void. Axel supposed it was what Oblivion had originally been: a void and a handful of fragmented memories.

It was just as well. No point in one of them getting trapped in someone else's memories.

Except, of course, that was exactly what Roxas was looking for.

"I don't _feel_ any different," Roxas said uncertainly, warily walking through the threshold. He waited a few seconds and shrugged. No head-splitting, image-bombarding migraines this time around.

Axel let out a little breath he hadn't thought he'd been holding. It was kind of different, almost nostalgic, to feel almost like he cared again, just a bit.

Riku didn't seem to notice. He was facing the entire entrance hall with a blankness that suggested he was either in the grip of unwanted remembrance or fighting it. But then, he _had_ fought his way up the Castle, met a replica of himself, and seen his best childhood buddy recuperate broken memories in a pod. Things like that changed you.

The entrance hall in question was vast, empty, and white. The hall was faintly luminescent, like the polished floors of a deathly quiet hospital ward. Tall, imposing columns that wouldn't have looked too out of place in the Coliseum marched down the hall. A set of wide-stepped stairs spiraled down from a tall door set high in the wall, continuing all the way into the darkness of the lower floors.

"Huh, looks like we're lucky today."

"Lucky?" Riku frowned. The set of his mouth suggested that he'd had far better 'bad' days.

"Stairs," Axel indicated with a hand. "Not always there, you know."

"Won't they…disappear on us?" Roxas said uncertainly, spotting the stairs.

"Not while we're on it," Axel said stridently. "Probably."

Roxas was less than impressed- Axel's record on tricky things like the _truth_ wasn't exactly stellar. But then, he didn't exactly have much of a choice. "Up or down?"

"There's not a lot left, either way," Axel commented. "Some of the rooms got destroyed and I wouldn't go into the basement, if I were you, but most of it is still fine."

"The basement?"

"The Upper Ups set up a cloning lab." Mistakes included. Axel hadn't been interested in finding out exactly what had remained of Vexen's experiments.

Riku frowned, but refrained from commenting, too guarded for idle chatter.

"Why don't we go down and work our way up?" Roxas suggested.

"I hear ya." Axel swung a shoulder around briefly, stretching out muscles. "Down we go."

---

They made their way down the Castle, endless floor upon endless floor. Some levels seemed entirely empty, devoid of even the rows of rooms that seemed to populate the rest of the castle. Until finally, the stairs ran out, coming to an abrupt end like the Castle couldn't believe that anything so mundane as a floor could halt its descent.

The entire party came to a complete stop at the bottom.

"What _are_ they?" Roxas breathed, wide blue eyes staring.

"I told you it wasn't pretty," Axel said, tone too light. "Welcome to the basement."

The basement was a floor with no walls. Only dull gray marble floors as far as the eye could see, white tables, and a massive, glowing glass tank. Inside of which, were small, dark, incomplete forms curled around themselves, pale hair drifting in the water like the fronds of Sea anemones. Some had no skin. Some were faceless. Some lacked limbs. A few stared out, bodies twisted, and with the vacant eyes of a doll.

Riku turned pale, faintly green around the edges. Several of the bodies looked vaguely like him. Mutilated versions of corpses curled into themselves.

It wasn't until Roxas saw an androgynous thing with a single cloudy deep blue eye that he realized some of them looked vaguely like _him_, too.

"This was where Vexen made puppets using his research. One of his pet projects. Dark only knows what the Superior thought he'd find out."

Roxas nodded mutely, the hair on the back of his neck standing on end as his eyes swept through the room. There was one tank that was made out of metal with a bar of glass embedded in the front. Three mismatched eyes stared at him from the glass. And he thought he just saw one blink.

Backing up a step, Roxas forced his eyes elsewhere.

"Nobody's been here in a while," Riku said, voice calm but tight. He gestured towards the stacks of neat papers and printed out formulas and numbers on the table, the computer that Vexen had used. All of them were covered in a thin layer of dust.

"No kidding," Axel snorted, but he, Roxas noticed, wasn't looking at the tanks, either.

"Why… was Vexen making these things?" Roxas asked carefully, trying not to be sick. Some of the cadavers were rotting in whatever filled the tanks, pieces of flesh melting off from the bone.

"Hell if I know," Axel snorted. "Orders. Science. Sick fantasies- they've always had all sorts of deep, dark secrets."

"Sounds like you fit right in," Roxas said bluntly, his voice cool.

Axel didn't move, but he didn't look at Roxas, either. "Ever thought that maybe some of those were for your own good?"

Roxas' scowl was unchanged. "Ever thought that maybe I can decide for myself?"

Axel chose not to reply. He'd learned how to pick his battles a long time ago, thanks. With someone pricklier than a grumpy teenage-angsting blonde, even. Besides, he'd already conceded the point and they were here in this mess, weren't they? All nice and deserter-like, yessir. Just waiting to go Dusk.

He'd seen enough Dusks get made. He wasn't planning on joining the roster. Or he hadn't been, anyway.

Now it was just a matter of whether or not he ever met his other former best friend ever again.

In hindsight, Axel kind of had crap luck at this whole friendship thing.

But he was kind of hoping that he could still salvage this one.

It's a stretch, maybe, to go this far for a few days of laughter. But for just another ghostly pulse of a heart he no longer had—what was sacrificing an existence he couldn't live?

Ignoring the fight that spoke untold volumes into the silence, Riku walked further into the basement, keeping well away from the tanks, but covering the perimeter of the floor. His footsteps kicked up tiny clouds of dust in the air. "There's nothing here," he said, finally.

Axel, who was busying himself examining the largest white table in the center of the room and finding nothing but old reports and diagrams; hypothetical formulas chalked onto drawings, looked up. "Color me surprised."

"Probably," Roxas said carefully, hoping he was imagining the way those eyes seemed to follow them around the room. All three of them. "I don't think anyone's been here in a long, long time, anyway."

Something groaned, the sound unearthly and jarring.

Instantly on alert, all three of them turned, eyes searching for the source of the noise. But each and every thing in the laboratory was just as it had been when they came in.

"This place is as creaky as Vexen's bones," Axel muttered. "Creepy like him, too."

"He wasn't that bad," Roxas frowned, just to be disagreeable. He hadn't liked Vexen's condescending tone any more than he had the others, but he was annoyed enough with Axel to want to refute anything he said and nervous enough to be a little snippy.

"You'd be surprised what's 'bad'," Axel said, none too gently, his eyes elsewhere.

"There's a lot of Darkness here," Riku said before another fight could break out. "Especially from… that." His eyes flicked to the metal tank. "But it doesn't look like DiZ is using any of it. Let's check the other floors."

Roxas did not think he had ever been so relieved to leave a room before. He had only teamed up with Vexen once, but he did think… that it was a little sad, to think of a room that had no owner.

As they left, he half-thought he heard something creak.

----

Retracing their steps up the Castle took surprisingly fast. Most of the lower floors turned out to be hallways with collapsed doors to other worlds. Inspecting the blank, dusty halls for any sign of disturbance was a task quickly finished. If anybody thought to put as much distance between them and the thing down in the basement, nobody brought it up.

It had just been floor after floor of nothing but white floors, white rooms, white staircases, and the occasional lost Heartless, skulking alone through the shadows like a beaten orphan. But then they hit the top floor above ground and still nothing was turning up, much to Riku's frustration.

"What did you guys _do_ around here?" Roxas asked, finally, breaking the silence that had lingered since the basement. He wasn't sure where he stood with Axel, anymore. On one hand, he was angry at him. But there was a lot of confusion mixed in with that. And just enough loneliness and shame at bringing up old hurts to be hesitant. Not enough to apologize, though. Not enough to forgive him. Not by a long shot.

As for the blindfolded teen walking just a little to his left and apart, the blonde couldn't even imagine what Riku wanted with him. He could only very vaguely recall a few of the words Riku had tossed at him during their fight. And just that had been enough to tell that Riku knew who Sora was. But the silence and the tension were getting oppressive. It bothered him for a reason he couldn't even begin to name.

"I mean, you didn't have missions, right?"

"Whole Castle was a mission," Axel retorted, voice neutral. "Just me, pinky, lightning bitch, and the Upper Up geeks downstairs enjoying each other's company and keeping ourselves from going batshit insane with it." He opened a door.

Roxas looked inside. Fast food litter was piled high in one corner, an unfinished chess game with pawns askew in the other. There were kunai on a much-abused dartboard, crayon drawings left by bored mocking gloved hands, a tiny, relatively spotless kitchenette, and withered rose petals everywhere, the black stem of a decaying blossom left on a couch.

Riku stepped inside, walking across the hall and opening a door at random.

"You don't wanna go in there," Axel said casually.

Riku stopped. "It's just a bedroom. Yours?"

"Not my style. I don't see pink looking good on me, do you?"

Riku rolled his eyes. "The woman, then- Larxene?" He vaguely remembered Namine telling him about her.

The redhead snorted. "Not hers, either. That one's Marluxia all the way through. Silk sheets, rose petals, the works."

"Nice sheets," Riku said dryly as Roxas came up for a look.

"Silk... sheets?" Roxas wasn't quite sure what to make of beds that weren't the standard issue Organization clinic-beds with token emblem headboard.

Axel didn't bother looking. He remembered that particular bed more than he cared to. From nights stretched across those sheets, pale thin body naked and thighs spread with Marluxia's fingers curled around the hair at his nape as he asked how loyal he was. Axel would limp back to his quarters afterwards, giving back every shiteating smirk Larxene tossed him sweetly with mocking eyes over the breakfast table when she asked if he wanted to sit.

"What else is in it?"

"Giant man-eating garden plants," Axel replied, pushing the memory back, deep, as far as it could go, for reasons that he didn't care to examine.

"What?! Why?" Roxas asked, bewildered and pulling back the foot that had been about to step inside.

"Personal hobby. Right up there with roses and feather boas."

Roxas frowned. "He didn't seem... feather boas?"

Axel grinned faintly, taking the opportunity for distraction. "Yeah, big, pink, fluffy ones. He makes them into wigs."

Brow furrowing, Roxas looked dubious. "Really?"

"Nope."

Riku glanced at him, then seemed to think better of it. Taking one last look inside the room and deciding that the scientist had not set up shop there, he walked to the next one.

Roxas seemed to get bored of Marluxia's room as well, following Riku to the next closest door.

Axel wondered if he should help look. His part in this little investigation had been minimal at best. But the thought quickly slipped from his mind when a Heartless oozed out of the shadow under one of the couches, heading straight for Roxas' back.

"Behind-" Axel started.

Roxas didn't need help.

Riku got there first.

Soul Eater in hand, Riku fluidly cut through the patch of Darkness, slicing clean through. Swinging it back, he twisted the blade viciously, banishing it. Leftover Darkness ran down his blade for a moment, oozing onto the floor, and then it vanished, collapsing back into something even less than a shadow.

Roxas scowled. "I could've taken that. And you don't have a Keyblade."

Riku paused. Then, very deliberately, he held his hand out, palm down, fingers closed into a fist.

Oblivion burst into being in his hand, silver-black sparks in its wake.

Roxas stared. "That's- give it back!" he said, almost childishly. "It's not _your_ Keyblade."

Riku shrugged, banishing Oblivion with a thought. "Doesn't matter. There are a lot of Keyblades and a lot of masters."

"Well, why didn't you use yours, then?"

"...Mine?"

Roxas folded his arms. "If you can use it, then you must have one, too, right?"

Hesitating, Riku looked away. "Maybe. Once." He'd never really thought about it. Not after being so thoroughly... Not after Sora showed him how wrong he was...

"There isn't any point to it. The shadow Heartless... they don't have anything to release anymore." Riku walked away, checking Larxene's room across the lounge.

"That was helpful," Roxas muttered, pushing back the strange chill that settled in the pit of his stomach at Riku's words. In the end, he was the same, wasn't he? Him and Axel. It seemed pretty clear that Riku didn't think much of them. But then, he didn't seem to think much of anything.

So why had Riku decided to… do that?

It was probably pointless to think about it. Roxas went to the next door, Axel meandering in the same direction- no point getting too worked up about searching their rooms, after all.

"That's a closet," Axel observed.

"…What's in it?"

"Storage. Larxene's dirty pocketbooks."

"Oh." Roxas moved on.

Axel smirked. "Not interested?"

Confused, Roxas frowned slightly. "What's so interesting about that?"

Shaking his head, Axel snorted. "Guess this is what happens when you get turned before puberty."

Roxas swung the door to Axel's room open. The redhead hadn't actually spent that much time in it. There was always too much going on. Loyalties to test. Schemes to overthrow. Promises on promises on broken promises. The place was almost as barren as his room back in the fortress, devoid of any personality from his life as Lea. Just your little spot to crash, plot, and be heartless in.

After all, a professional didn't leave evidence behind.

"Nothing here," Roxas noted. "Could use a cleaning, though."

"Who has time for housework?" Axel retorted dismissively.

"Are you two coming?" Riku's voice drifted towards the two Nobodies. He stood in front of a door that led to Namine's room- a canary cage with four white walls, waiting for both of them to finish inspecting Axel's room. Riku had, Axel noticed, been particularly careful to keep an eye on them both, never letting them leave his sight- almost as if he was afraid Axel would take Roxas back to the Organization.

Axel supposed he couldn't really blame him. Given half the chance, he kind of thought he would. But Roxas had made it abundantly clear that he wasn't going back. That he wasn't safe there, any more.

Axel had never felt safe in the Organization. But then, he had never swallowed that particular lie.  
---

The room was empty.

Riku's fist clenched tightly, the last trickle of faint hope of finding them here vanishing instantly. It would have been too soon, perhaps.

Roxas looked around the polished white room, his hands trailing over the large crystal ball in the middle like it could tell him the secrets of this world. Namine had left a stack of old drawings, ripped apart just as the false memories had been. Roxas sifted through the papers, lining the pieces up like a series of 2-piece jigsaw puzzles.

"Who did these?" he asked, tracing the childish scrawl of two boys fighting with wooden swords. Looking at them made something stir at the back of his mind, like an itch he couldn't scratch or a long-buried thought. There was something significant about these drawings, but he couldn't tell why.

His black-gloved fingertip traced the waxy color trail of messy brown hair.

Striding in from the adjoining room, Riku looked at the papers . "Those are Namine's…"

"The girl you were talking about?" Roxas asked.

"More talent than a chimpanzee with a paintbox," Axel snorted, picking up half of a scrawled drawing and holding it up next to Riku.

Riku looked like he was trying to decide between jabbing his elbow below Axel's ribs or just getting away from the sudden invasion in his personal space. In the end, he did both.

Axel stepped back in the nick of time, dropping the piece of paper as Riku walked over to the other side of the table- Roxas' side. Evidently preferable.

"It's like a story… But what for?" Roxas asked.

"Namine's … she can do things with memories. Change them. Destroy them. Make new ones. Heal them." Riku frowned. It felt strange, talking about it.

"She made those when the Organization forced her to…" Riku trailed off. He wasn't the one with all the details to that little venture. Axel, on the other hand, didn't seem like he was about to tell his partner all the wonderful gory details of his systematic destruction of Oblivion.

"It just seems… kind of like I've seen them before, though." Roxas looked through the rest of the pictures before finally moving from the table.

Riku blinked after him, wondering why it seemed like Roxas knew what it was to be sad.

"Hey, look at this..." Roxas called suddenly.

Walking over, Riku examined the door. "I… don't remember this being here…"

"It... feels different."

Different? Riku frowned. "It might be unstable--"

Roxas reached out and touched the door. Riku turned, realizing too late that he was close enough to get sucked inside with him.

---

There was a moment of disorienting darkness before they suddenly emerged into hot, unyielding sunlight.

"Where...?" Roxas asked, dazed. That hadn't felt like any portals he'd ever used before. "The door…!"

Riku turned. The portal they had exited seconds ago was gone, the Darkness rapidly collapsing onto itself, like it had never existed. Unstable Darkness. There had been pockets of it all over the Castle.

"We'll have to find a new one," Riku said. Or possibly make one. Riku wasn't entirely sure if he could make a portal inside a memory, but it couldn't hurt to try…

"We're at the beach?!" Roxas asked suddenly.

Riku looked up, catching sight of a familiar bent tree- and beyond it.

The sky was a heart-wrenching deep blue, the brightly shining sun beating down on the lush vegetation and white sand- the shifting sea. Destiny Islands as it should be, with no storm and no shadows, the fresh scent of coconuts and Paopu on the sea breeze; the faint breath of flowers further in land. He could almost hear the lively voices of the fishermen hauling up fish at sea; the laughter of carefree souls playing in the shallows.

Ironic, how hard he had kept trying to leave it, only to keep coming back. To miss it once it was gone.

Roxas knelt, picking up a sea shell the exact same color pattern as Oathkeeper's tip.

"… It feels bright. Brighter than usual."

"We can't all be born from Darkness."

…And Riku hadn't really thought about how he was technically sort of partially responsible for Roxas' birth, what with the have fallen in Darkness. Got new soulsucking Keyblade. Will lend to self-sacrificing best friends. Not that he'd really had a choice... not that either of them had, to get Kairi's heart back.

Unaware, Roxas simply shot him an annoyed glance. He stuck out his fist, palm up in an almost perfect parody of what Riku had done earlier. Then he slowly opened his fingers to show a pearly blossom of light cocooning the shell. Just in case anyone forgot who was the resident light elemental.

He tossed Riku the still-glowing shell and strode off in what would be a dramatic exit except he was a little too short for it to really work, even with the billowing black robes of Organization high fashion.

Riku caught the shell almost instinctively. Ten years of trying not to be hit by Wakka's Blitzball kicking in unconsciously. The light was fading quickly, now that the shell had left Roxas' hand and the Nobody could no longer sustain it.

It was a Thalassa shell, the kind Kairi liked, one tip broken like someone had stepped on the end.

Riku frowned, looking up at where Roxas was examining the edge of the island.

And then Roxas fell over the edge of the cliff.

Not a controlled, masterful dive. Not even a more cautious slide down the cliff face (the guy could run up freaking skyscrapers- what was a mid-size craggy bluff or two?). It was a full out, pinwheeling _fall_.

"What-!" Riku sprang from his spot, running for the edge as the tip of Roxas' black cloak flashed over it. He made a grab for the blonde's arm but his fingers missed, scooping at air.

Roxas' black and blonde shape plunged into the sea, sparkling clear water splashing up in a wide font.

Shit. Did Roxas know how to swim? Did Nobodies know how to swim if their Somebodies did?

Riku stared at the water. But Roxas didn't seem to be coming up.

And it struck Riku that Roxas had been wearing a heavy full length black leather coat complete with thick metal chain accessories.

Each second suddenly counted.

Stripping off his own coat and boots, Riku dove into the sea.

The water was cold and clear, shocking his senses for the first few seconds before his body adjusted rapidly, a lifetime of practice keeping his muscles limber.

He surfaced for air before diving back in, pushing up a corner of his blindfold and keeping his eyes open. And there— Roxas was – trust him to pick the deep end- struggling slightly against his coat and a sudden intake of seawater, slowly sinking like a doomed ship. Riku swam after him, grabbing his wrists and hauling him up, one arm around a surprisingly slender waist.

It was lucky Riku had the benefit of fifteen years swimming in these waters, or that Roxas was relatively light, even with the coat bogging him down. Either way, they broke through the surface, Roxas coughing up seawater.

"What the hell happened to your sense of balance?" Riku panted out, filling his lungs with air. Water ran down his face, clogging up his ears, so he couldn't be sure if Roxas even heard him.

"I—thought I heard—something…" Roxas struggled to get the words out, awkwardly clinging to Riku's bare, shirtless shoulders as he tried to stay afloat. He seemed to be doing a lot better at it now that he wasn't getting a faceful of sea at 15 meters per second at the same time.

"What, a seagull?" Riku asked acidly. Two of them were wheeling above them, scouting for food and squalling.

"No, your girlfriend," Roxas bit back in roughly the same tone.

Riku blinked. "Who?"

"A girl." Roxas pushed back hanks of wet blonde hair from his face, red-faced from lack of air, and glared up at Riku. Then he had to clutch at his chest as a large wave rolled in, pushing him against the taller teen. His fingers, Riku noted, were just as cold as the sea.

"Was it…Namine?" Riku asked hesitantly. Who else would call out to Roxas in a place like this?

Roxas looked at him. "Maybe. I wouldn't know, would I?"

---

"It might be residual memories," Riku said, several minutes later, as he and Roxas waded back onto the beach. Roxas was stripping off his coat and boots, shedding water like a particularly grumpy golden retriever.

Not that Roxas was really paying him any attention. He was busy getting a piece of kelp out of his pants, his smooth, untanned back quickly drying in the heat of the sun. His shoulders seemed so small, out of the uniform, but the clean lines of it were strong.

"Namine did something around here before… you could just be picking up on that." Memory echoes in memory worlds. It wasn't all that much of a stretch, really.

The blonde watched a crab scuttle away from his bare feet. "Let's just find the exit and RT- and get back. Can we use a Corridor?"

Riku shrugged, wringing out his hair and letting it slap back against his neck in slightly tangled silver twists. Water beaded on his throat, down to his chest and arms. His pants were too soaked to even bother mentioning. He hoped the material didn't take to the salt water too badly.

Concentrating for a moment, he tried to focus and bring a Corridor to life, steeling himself against the suction-stick feeling of the Darkness creeping lovingly across his skin. But there wasn't any to call on. The entire island was suspended in a void like a dream.

A dream they could very well be stuck in forever, castaways.

"Looks like a 'no'," Riku said grimly. "And I didn't see any normal exits, last time I was here. "

"You've been here before?"

Riku turned away, wringing water from the ends of the black cloth he used to blindfold himself. "I grew up here." The water pooled in the cup of his palm for a moment, dripping down slender fingers into the sand. "Or the real thing, anyway."

"You… grew up at the beach?" Roxas said incredulously.

"This 'beach' is only a part of Destiny Islands." Riku said cooly, his gaze just as icy. And that made Roxas notice something he hadn't ever had the chance to see before.

"Your eyes—were they always that color?" Roxas stared. Riku's blindfold was still askew, revealing one intense sea-green eye flecked with molten gold and long, impossibly dark gunmetal lashes. And that wasn't right. That wasn't- suddenly the shock hit him. Unconsciously, he stepped forward. "So it_ was_ you I saw in my dreams-! The memories… you were in them!" It had only been a guess, at first. There could have been other 'Riku's. And there hadn't been time to really ask.

Riku abruptly drew the cloth back over his eyes. "Those are Sora's memories."

"Who are you? To Sora," Roxas added. Not 'who I was'. 'Sora'. Because Sora was someone different. As alien to Roxas as the boy before him.

"I was… a friend."

Roxas frowned. It wasn't a lot to go on. But a 'friend'. So even Sora had had them. "Did he… have a lot?" There had been other faces. He was sure of it.

Riku's lips curved into a thin smile. The first Roxas had ever seen that hadn't been a smirk. "Everywhere."

"Then… you weren't… special?"

Riku's face shuttered off, as cleanly as though a window had been closed. "No."

"But… I saw you! You were… laughing together." Roxas head started to hurt, desperately trying to remember the little snatches of images.

"It doesn't mean anything."

"Like hell it doesn't!" Roxas burst out.

Riku said nothing.

Trying to recover, Roxas looked up at him. "If they're his… and I'm his Nobody… then why don't I have all of it? All the memories?"

"Because somewhere, Sora has the rest. And Namine… might still be trying to fix his memories." He turned to go. Roxas wasn't ready for this. Hell, Riku wasn't ready for this. Not anywhere near ready enough.

"Wait! What else are you not telling me?"

"You're not ready," Riku said bluntly.

"Then you aren't any different from _them_," Roxas said harshly.

The cold edge of a Kingdom Key slammed into Riku's chest, abruptly knocking him off balance. Roxas swiftly pushed his shoulders down, sitting on top of Riku's waist, dark blonde hair still dripping with seawater.

Riku fought back instinctively, twisting in the sand. Fine grit covered them both, clouding up beneath their bodies with each harsh movement. Roxas was light, but he also knew enough about his sense of balance to know where to throw his weight. He leaned over Riku and grabbed his wrists.

The next moment, Riku kicked Roxas off and pinned him face-first into the sand, his breathing harsh, one arm barred on the blonde's neck and his knees planted firmly on either side of Roxas' waist.

"I'm not like you. I'm not like any of you. I still have my heart, for all that it's worth now." Riku's voice comes out more feverish than he'd like, edged with the subtle self-deprecation that seems to creep into everything he says, these days.

"What's the difference?" Roxas spat, too angry to even put up too much of a fight.

"What I say and what I don't say- it's not all about you. "

"I'm not -! I have a right to know the things that _are _about me!"

"You'll know. I just won't tell you until you prove you're more than a brat throwing a tantrum," Riku added cockily.

Roxas spluttered, half-known memories colliding with a year's experience of being the deadliest weapon of the Organization. Just like Riku thought they would. Even as his gut twists with the knowledge.

Getting off of the Nobody, Riku strode off, ignoring all the sand that insisted on sticking to his boots and skin. He didn't even know why he was being so truthful, except that it had been the right thing to do- and he had done enough of what wasn't the right thing to do to last a lifetime.

---

Riku had stripped his pants off to dry over a tree trunk when he saw Roxas again. He was standing in the shallows of the water, possibly sulking, his pants rolled up and holding a seashell up against the light. It looked familiar-- his mother had told him a story about it, once. The fishermen called it a 'shooting star'. The bright, colorful slug-like shape that ended in a star, almost like a medal. Or, turned on its side, a shooting star streaking across the sand.

It was one of the shells that Kairi and Sora used to love collecting, lining up their daily haul in straight lines on the sand to see who had a better find.

But… the colors were wrong. Gold where there had been brown. The expression wasn't quite right, either. His mind kept picking out the little differences in a face he had known all his life, desperate to keep one from bleeding into another.

Roxas wasn't Sora. Namine wasn't Kairi, either. But Roxas' presence was a lot stronger than shrinking, captive Namine's had ever been. The interplay of anger and sadness on his face so intense it seemed real. Maybe it was. Roxas was trying so hard to be someone. More than an accident of shared hearts and a Keyblade that unlocked souls.

He hadn't expected that.

But he hadn't expected to save the other boy twice in one day, either. Not that the ungrateful Nobody seemed to notice.

Turning his back towards the sight, Riku walked into the secret cave. Everything was perfectly reproduced here, too. Everything from the patches of moss on the walls to the scratched white drawings near the bottom. And…

Yeah. That was there, too, wasn't it?

Kneeling on the cool stone floor, Riku traced his fingertips over two childishly scrawled arms feeding Paopu fruit to each other. There were only two faces scrawled in that part of the wall. And only one promise etched into it.

It still… It still sort of hurt. But the ache was so old. So faded. What did it matter if he was left behind now? When he wasn't planning on ever making it back.

Sometimes you were so frightened of something that you ended up making it come true.

So afraid of being left behind that he tried to leave first. And so afraid of losing them that he lost them first. He'd never even really 'had' Kairi, had he? Everything seemed so stupid. So stupid and yet so irrefutably there.

And now he'd lost them again. Sora and Kairi's Nobody: Namine.

But he'd find them. Definitely. He just couldn't let all these mistakes pile up like this and not do anything. He'd find Sora. Wake him up. Send him back home to Kairi. To the real Islands. "Count on it, guys," Riku murmured to the caricatures on the cave wall.

Finally, he stood and walked to the portal that had started everything. The keyhole that had changed the fate of the Worlds.

But… the atmosphere around it was completely different. It had always been different, but not like this… It felt sort of like… a hole. In a perfectly crafted illusion.

The exit.

---

Axel had been waiting for two hours.

Not the longest time he'd ever waited, but then, he hadn't really had to worry about the fact that his best friend and a Somebody were trapped in some sort of warphole room-world before.

Whatever had sucked Roxas and Riku inside wasn't letting anybody else in, either. Maybe it sensed who Axel was. Or who he wasn't- someone with a connection to that world.

So here he was, uselessly fidgeting with his chakrams and throwing them into the drawings still stuck on the wall to pass the time (five points if it hits a head, ten points if its pink-haired). There wasn't much else he could do. There weren't any decisions to make anymore. It was stay or go. And he'd already gone rolling down the left road. No brakes; no stops- not anymore.

And he'd lost his friends once already, hadn't he? Woken up to find that the guy he'd grown up with-- wasn't the same anymore. Not the boy he'd laughed with, not the boy he'd messed around with- not Isa. Looking at Saix had been like finding a stranger in Isa's room. But then, he'd figured, maybe that was how people were. They grew up. Changed. Distant. And there had never been anything else to be loyal to. Not until now. It had been... Well, he'd never claim he'd never had any ulterior motives. It had been curiosity to start with- new guy born from ex-savior of worlds, looked like Ven, possible useful Heartless-killing ally-- Axel guessed he'd always been pretty stupid that way, making friends with squirts who didn't know their way around a viper.

He had the damndest hierarchy of loyalties, too, but then, was it really loyalty when you were only really being loyal to yourself? To the slightest ghost of a being able to 'feel' again. To be an existence rather than to exist. Granted, he really could've done without going on a harebrained search for the little-boy savior of worlds.

Axel snorted, folding his lanky frame into a nearby sofa and amusing himself with creating pyrotechnic creations in the air-- a sickle moon, a castle, a city razed to the ground.

As for Riku... Axel wasn't sure what to make of him. It was fairly easy to find out how his mind worked, give or take the self-loathing. But someone so _martyred_ couldn't possibly be real, right? And yet realer than any of them living in that dark, rainy world of Nothing.

At least Axel could count on him to make sure to kill himself before Roxas. Wouldn't do to kill any part of his best friend.

"He better not," Axel muttered faintly, banishing flame-wrought monsters from the air.

In the meantime, he might as well see what it'd take to get a nice reaction from the prettyboy martyr.

He had just about gotten bored enough to wonder if he could get one of Larxene's dirty pocketbooks out of the closet when the door opened.

"-ey!!" Roxas stumbled backwards into the room, catching himself with one knee on the floor as he turned to glare at the silver-haired teen behind him.

Considering he was still blindfolded, Riku did a very good impression of conveying 'see?' without speaking a word as he stepped out of the doorway.

Roxas' cheeks pinked.

Riku sidestepped Roxas' kneeling form and looked at Axel almost warily.

"About time," Axel snorted. He looked at both of them carefully and noticing the strong scent of seawater and the fine layer of sand on their clothes. "What, did you have sex on the beach or something?"

Riku glared. "Roxas fell off a cliff." The way he said it, you'd think it was Axel's fault.

"I didn't fall off! Someone talked to me! In my head!" Roxas insisted.

"You might not want to advertise that too much," Axel said dryly, one brow raised.

"We should take another look through the rooms and see if there are any supplies left," Riku broke in suddenly, changing the subject.

"Leave them alone, Riku," Axel said sharply.

"It's funny," Riku said, tilting his head towards the taller man. "I didn't think you had a conscience."

"I don't," Axel replied flippantly. "But only Dark knows what Larxene puts in her things."

Leaving any items they could use behind seemed wasteful, but then Riku hadn't been sure he wanted any of the left-behind goods anyway, even if they could use them.

Axel stretched. "Let's go. There's nothing left here that we can't leave behind."

---

They passed the trip back down in silence, walking in a loose, wandering single file. Axel took the lead, Roxas kept to the back- he didn't seem to want to talk to Riku, either, funnily enough.

Some feet between Axel and Roxas, Riku wracked his brain for another lead, refusing to give up.

Where else could they have gone? He didn't know how Diz got around, but there were no signs of any Corridors being opened back at the base. The only other way to travel was by gummi ship, and in that case, there weren't many who had them. Diz would have had to get it from somewhere…like say a port world.

"Guess this one's a bust, huh? Can't say your detective skills are anything worth sneezing at, Ri-ku."

"You-" Something tugged at the edge of his senses, insistent, like a too-large shadow over a book being read.

Riku turned around, and everything in his mind abruptly derailed.

In front of him was the large mass of pure Darkness, like a black tsunami stretching out to fill the entire entrance hall, grotesque limbs as pale as a corpse poking out at random intervals. Mismatched eyes blinked from its open maw and the shifting colors of its skin dripped like thick tar-black oil. It had tiny, broken-fingered hands, each one clawing forward, scuttling with inhuman speed and leaving a trail of smoking acidic sludge behind. It was easily larger than any Heartless he'd ever seen. Not a Heartless. Not a Nobody. A mindless manufactured monster. Like the biggest mistake science had ever made.

Suddenly he knew with dead on clarity what exactly had been inside that metal tank. The leftovers of other mistakes.

And Roxas was dead center of the creature's path.

"Run!" Axel yelled. A wall of fire burst into being in front of the monster.

It passed right through it like it was smoke.

"Graaaaaaaahhhh…" it moaned in a cacophony of voices. Only twisted. Bent so much out of shape that it only retained the stripped bones of the originals. Riku's blood ran cold.

"Don't just stand there!" the redhead shouted, running past him and reaching for Roxas. He threw one of his chakrams at the thing. It hit the mass with a sick thunk and was quickly gobbled up in the void. Axel cursed and was still running. He grabbed Roxas by his shoulder and tugged him back.

The Key of Destiny had both Keyblades out.

Axel was _not_ impressed. "Are you crazy? This isn't a mission! Just run!"

Something in Axel's tone must have gotten through, because Roxas hesitated for just one more second before he turned and started running, too.

"Move your pale ass before they decide to absorb it off your dead body!" Axel roared at Riku.

Startled out of his shock, Riku leapt forward and grabbed both Nobodies' forearms. "Down here!" He tumbled them all through one of the narrow alley-sideways in the hall, pushing them both forward even as they half-stumbled, shoulders and coats scraping noisily against the narrow walls.

Not a yard behind them, the monster stopped and clawed at the sides of the corridor entrance. Whatever it was, it was made out of dense stuff. The massive body bulged around the alley corner, trying to go in after them, but it was stuck, three bloodless hands scrabbling at the light-colored metal which made up so much of Oblivion.

One of the hands grabbed at Riku's hair and he snapped Soul Eater upward, lopping the limb cleanly off.

A mistake. The hand flopped into the alley and skittered towards them, still groping hungrily for whatever had motivated the monster to break out of its tank.

Light flashed and Roxas stabbed his Keyblade down, the sharp tip of Oblivion piercing the hand straight through its palm.

"Summon it back later, " Riku said instantly, "we have to get out of here."

"Hope you've got a plan, Riku, because this looks like a really dead end to me." Axel pointed at the solid wall in front of them.

"There's a hidden pocket of Darkness here somewhere- I sensed it when we came in!"

Riku squeezed past Roxas, the chains of their coats scraping together. He was about to tug past when he realized something was dragging him back. By the throat.

Riku panicked, grabbing for his throat. But it was just Roxas' zipper and chains, tangled in his.

Riku pulled, trying to dislodge his coat from its clingy romance with Roxas', but that just seemed to knot it tighter.

"Dammit, why now?!" His hips ground roughly against Roxas, pressing tightly together the more he struggled to free his collar.

The groaning from the monster was unpromisingly loud and near. It definitely had no intention of going anywhere else. Why would it? Fresh meat and the original blue print of its DNA were just three feet away.

Riku tugged one last time, yanking Roxas towards him to relax the knot in the chains.

All that did was bump their heads together.

The smell of rancid Nothing-Darkness and decomposing meat was invading the alley, almost suffocating them all.

Fuck. Calm down. Right. Riku took a careful breath. There was no way he could see the coat chains at the awkward angle they were in.

"Axel, cut these off, quick."

Axel, for once, didn't argue. He just reached over and started working on the knot. It was probably a good thing Axel was as thin as he was. Squeezed together as they were, he could still wiggle his fingers onto the chains and… melt right through it.

Riku jerked sideways as soon as he saw the metal go cherry red, knocking right into Axel's chest.

"Heat?!" Riku demanded as he tried to not touch the metal. It was pressing up against Axel's ribs- something that didn't seem to bother Axel one bit.

"Less talking, more finding," Axel snapped back.

Riku was already pressing a hand against the wall, searching for that trickle of Darkness.

But every inch of the wall felt and looked exactly the same, his palm pressing up against unyielding, concrete hardness. The walls seemed to close in, squeezing together like a death trap.

But it had to be here! He had been so sure… he had been so sure he'd felt it!

"I- It's coming!" Roxas shouted. From the entrance, the blob was slowly but surely changing shape, narrowing its bulk down, becoming smaller and denser. Enough to fit in the alley.

It reached three oozing, stitched-up hands towards Roxas' face.

Roxas yelled, thrusting his Keyblade out in the narrow space. It missed.

"Here!" Finding a thin crack of Darkness running up one panel, Riku's hand sank into the wall. The crack ballooned into an oval portal, the Corridor just beyond.

The hand swiped at Roxas' face, missing his nose by a hair, and grabbed his left shoulder.

"Gah!" Roxas brought his Keyblade up, knocking the hand away.

"Come on!" Riku reached out and yanked both Nobodies towards him, barreling into the Corridor sideways.

They ended up tumbled on the grass somewhere, the collapsing remains of the portal collapsing into its primordial soup around them.

"Ugh…"

Roxas was first to pick himself up, pulling out most of his left thigh from somewhere underneath Riku's back and an elbow from the vicinity of Axel's collarbone.

Looking up, he frowned. "Where…?"

* * *

_To be continued…_

* * *

**Author's notes:**

RTC – This is Organization lingo for 'let's hightail back to the fortress That Never Was before Saix gets suspicious and chews our asses off'. Roxas is prolly used to saying it because of that.

CHECK OUT CHAPTER 1 NOTES if you haven't yet- I've got some DAYS SPOILERY INFO related to fic if you want it. Otherwise, feel free to ignore.

Uh, so I started a full-time internship and my extracurriculars suddenly blew up, so I sadly, I don't know when the next chapter will be up and I'm not sure which of my half-made chapters will go. On the bright side, this turned out much longer than I thought! 3000 words more and with no padding.

_**Please feed the muses and review! :D**_


	3. The Scramble

**A/N: For this chapter, there are some spoilers for The World Ends With You, a DS game developed by the same team as Kingdom Hearts- which explains a lot more than it doesn't. Standard disclaimers apply.**

* * *

**III.**

**The Scramble**

* * *

**Location: ?****  
**  
"Where…?" Roxas frowned. They were in the middle of a patch of grass ringed by low shrubbery- from what he could see- the only one. Concrete paths crisscrossed around the perimeter of the island, abandoned benches lining them.

"Park," Axel informed, brushing a blade of grass off of his person. "At night."

Riku could see tall buildings just a few feet away, tiny windows of light scattered on the dimmed facades. Neon signs just beyond them and somewhere , the far-off sounds of music, the bass the only thing left rolling into the night in a pulsing fog of sound.

And then something dark leaped for his back.

Roxas swung out, the keyblade barely formed in his hand when it hit the blob like a baseball bat, sending the shadow flying away.

"Nice batting."

A vaguely emaciated-looking man stood in an orange circle of lamplight a few meters away. "But you three aren't from around here, are you?"

"Just passing through," Axel agreed breezily.

The man pushed his shades up his nose, apparently able to see perfectly fine in the evening darkness with them on. "That thing you're holding, kid- that a keyblade?"

Roxas frowned, banishing Oathkeeper-something about how knowledgeable the man was made him a little wary, although he seemed friendlier than most of the other people he'd talked to. Not that it was saying much, considering most of those were Organization.

"Who wants to know?" Axel prompted, subtly stepping between the man and his best friend. Kinda. Still was. He was used to being underappreciated.

"Ah. Hey, I'm not suspicious or anything." He held his hands up, placating. "Name's Hanekoma. People call me 'Mr.H'." The man walked closer, stopping a few feet away.

"Look, I can tell you're from another world. That blob a while ago isn't native, either." He reached into his pocket, making the trio tense, but he only took out a piece of paper, slightly crumpled, with WildKat Cafe written at the back. Smoothing the paper out, he offered it to them.

It was a colored sketch of a shadowy blob, vaguely resembling a concerto, but dark all around with red eyes and stylized limbs where thread-like clawed legs would be and a hat made entirely of jagged swirls, like they'd been crafted from tribal tattoos. It was definitely...

"A Heartless," Riku said definitively. He'd felt the blob coming- if not _when_, which proved it had a connection to the Darkness.

Hanekoma raised an eyebrow. "Look familiar to you guys? It's nothing like anything we have around here. My hunch is it's some sort of mutation from outside contamination."

Suddenly, Axel had a pretty good idea why tall dark and mysterious here was getting at. "It's been a nice chat, but we were just leaving."

Reaching for the Darkness, Axel tried to find a crack in between worlds. Then, he frowned. He couldn't summon a portal. It felt blocked.

"Problems?" Hanekoma asked, almost innocently.

Scowling, Axel clenched the outstretched hand into a fist at his side. "Keep talking."

"You're probably trapped by the dimensional field around our world. Earth's... all sorts of special. Getting out will take a lot of juice."

"Juice?" Roxas echoed.

"Power. Supernatural power," Hanekoma explained.

"Lemme guess, just so happens you have it?" Axel drawled.

"Know where to find it. My Boss isn't really too keen on the new infestation situation. If you play clean-up team, he might just grant you passes to a world-hop."

Riku stepped forward. "Where's your 'Boss'?"

"Easy there. You'll have to see him tomorrow."

"What? Why?" Roxas blinked.

Mr. Hanekoma shrugged. "You're not the only ones with a favor to ask Shibuya's death god."

* * *

"Death god?" Roxas frowned, feeling slightly lost. It had been a while since the confusion had been this bad. In a way, it was more frustrating than when he'd first woken.

Riku, on the other hand, was completely unimpressed. After having met Hades, he was less than awed at the prospect of meeting another one.

If Axel had any opinion on gods, of Death or otherwise, he didn't show it.

Mr. Hanekoma took their lack of reaction in a stride. "We call them Composers. They basically manage the city's creativity and souls. Over here, if you die young, the soul gets entered into a Game where they fight to get another chance at life. Winning refines their souls in the process. And if it's good enough, the Composer revives them."

"Sounds competitive," Axel noted, expression unreadable.

"Gets to be." He took out a sleek gadget from his pocket, flipping it open and holding it up to his ear. "Just a sec, gotta make this call."

Neku Sakuraba was lounging in his room in an old Mus Rattus tank top and shorts, spiky orange hair falling messily all around his head ever since he got out of the shower. He'd just spread his algebra homework on the table, when the call came. His sleek blue phone blared out a techno remix of Underground before he pressed the call button, holding the phone up to his ear.

"Mr. H? What's up?" Neku frowned. It wasn't often that Mr. Hanekoma called him. Neku thought that between being a wildly popular enigmatic artist and playing referee for Shibuya's Game, the man didn't really have much time on his hands.

"Hey, Neku! Listen, got a little favor to ask you. Remember those weird Noise? I got some people who might be able to take care of them. But they need a place to crash until the Game starts."

"... They're going into the Game and they aren't dead yet?"

"Nope, alive and probably prone to kicking. The Game starts tomorrow night and the WildKat is closed- think you could put them up for a bit?"

"...Yeah." His parents were away, as usual, so it wasn't like anyone would know. That and some part of him couldn't say no to Mr. Hanekoma. Probably because he'd discovered the man was CAT, the designer he'd idolized for most of his sixteen years and possibly kept him sane.

"Thanks. Be there in ten. See ya, Neku." The line clicked off.

* * *

It was a quarter past ten when Neku heard the knock at his door. He opened it to reveal three black-coated strangers reluctantly behind a wryly smiling Mr. H.

"Mr. H," Neku acknowledged respectfully, letting them in.

Two of the strangers were older than him, but one looked like he was his age. A blonde with large blue eyes and almost ridiculously thick lashes. He was tempted to ask if they were stuck on. But then, the entire group seemed a little... cosplay.

The trio crowded into the living room, looking a little out of place and more than a little like they'd stepped out of some otaku's magazine. More strangely still, they seemed to keep away from eachother, like they were afraid to spontaneously combust on contact.

"We appreciate it, Neku." Mr. Hanekoma greeted.

"Don't mention it. How's he holding up?"

Mr. Hanekoma rubbed the back of his neck. "Willpower. Hasn't slept in days."

Neku snorted. "Serves him right. So who are they?"

"Axel," the redhead said lazily. "These two over here are Riku and Roxas."

From the scowl the silver-haired one had, Neku thought he probably didn't appreciate being introduced. The sight made a corner of his mouth tilt up faintly. It reminded him a little of something he'd done a lifetime ago.

"Neku Sakuraba."

Hanekoma coughed. "Right, I got to go check in with the Boss. I'll pick them up tomorrow, alright, Neku?" And with that, he stepped out of the door, vanishing into thin air.

Neku watched him go, before turning to the three new temporary housemates in his living room. "I've pulled out some old futons for you- you can set them up on the floor." He pointed at three rolled up bundles leaning against the couch.

"Thoughtful," Axel snorted.

Neku shrugged. "There's some food in the fridge, just don't empty it out and don't break anything."

With these wise words imparted, Neku went back up to his room. It wasn't exactly his business who these people were, particularly when they would shortly be for most intents and purposes, dead. As long as the apartment didn't get trashed, he was good.

Just because he didn't hate people anymore didn't mean he loved all of them, either.

* * *

"Should we leave?" Roxas asked, as soon as the other boy- 'Neku', he'd said his name was- disappeared into another room.

Axel thought about it, leaning against the back of the couch. "Could."

Riku shook his head. "Dealing with the Heartless is the fastest way to get off this world." His body folded into the couch, muscles almost sighing audibly in relief at being able to sit down after an entire day of searching Oblivion and running from a monster.

Axel turned, leaning over Riku like a tattooed gargoyle. "You're not thinking like a villain, Riku."

"Guess that means I'll win."

Roxas sat on the opposite end of the couch almost tentatively. "Do you think we can trust them?"

"It doesn't matter, " Riku said grimly, staring straight ahead.

Riku woke up breathless, the night pressing down upon him. Fear made his heart hammer wildly, adrenaline pushing him up, the weight thrown off.

"Ow!" Roxas hit the carpeted floor with a small thump, rubbing his nose.

Blinking once before his eyes got used to the lack of light, Riku frowned. "What were you doing?"

After some minutes of discussion earlier in the night, all three of them had decided to turn in, exhausted by the search through Oblivion. Axel had curled himself into a deep settee, his lanky form managing to fold comfortably. Roxas had collapsed into an arm chair—one that rocked, as it turned out from his yelp. And Riku had chosen the farthest corner of the living room from them both while still keeping them within clear sight. It was just a happy coincidence that it was also the patch of floor closest to the exit.

Was Roxas trying to escape by himself?

Glaring at Riku, Roxas stood up. "You were making weird sounds."

"I was… what?"

"Making all these weird sounds and thrashing about. "

"And you decided to check up on me?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Roxas demanded, hands curling into fists by his side, and looking so much like Sora for a moment that Riku felt his blood run cold. Nobody but Sora was supposed to sound like Sora.

"It's nothing." Riku said flatly, looking down. "It just happens every now and then. Don't you ever get nightmares?"

Roxas face seemed to cloud over. "I don't think so. It's just those weird dreams about someone else or nothing."

Riku could say nothing to that. He got up, walking into the kitchen.

It wasn't until he opened the refrigerator that he realized Roxas had followed him in. He was hovering at the edge, with the shadows, like he was trying to spy on Riku, keeping to the very edges of his vision.

"…I can see you."

Roxas flinched.

"I can walk around blindfolded. What makes you think hiding in the shadows would make you any less noticeable?" Riku snorted, taking out a carton of what seemed to be milk- he didn't recognize the brand- and, after a moment's pause, two bun-like things in plastic packaging. He tossed one to the blonde playing hide and seek with the corner.

"…Thanks."

"Not my food," Riku replied, investigating the rest of the contents of the fridge.

He didn't see anything much to make a proper sandwich with- just milk, a lot of soda- some beer- he guessed that belonged to Neku's father- a couple of boxes of what looked like chicken nuggets and a few more bread packets like this one. Neku probably subsisted on the stuff and takeout while his parents were away.

But Riku wasn't exactly picky. Taking out a box of the nuggets, he closed the door shut and ripped the packet open. Roxas followed suit a moment later. Silence fell as they started eating.

"…It tastes weird," Roxas said, a little startled.

"It's a little spicy," Riku admitted. The bun was coated in breadcrumbs and filled with a thick beef curry. It wasn't particularly spicy. Or particularly new. Neku hadn't been shopping in a while.

"You've eaten this before?"

"No, but I've had curry."

"Curry?"

"The stuff that's inside. Just, usually, it's stew."

Roxas inspected it, wondering how the paste-like substance could qualify for stew.

"It's usually wetter," Riku added blandly, interpreting the look correctly. But something was starting to bother him a little.

"…You don't remember much about the everyday things, do you?"

Roxas paused at munching on his curry bread. "… The first week or so, I didn't remember much at all. Not even how to comb my hair or anything like that."

"…It shows."

Roxas glared.

Riku brushed it off, curious in spite of himself. "How did you do anything?"

"Axel showed me. And the others in the Organization. Lexaeus knocked me out to teach me something, once."

"…They were training you?"

"It was more like showing me the ropes. Some of them didn't really do much, though. Zexion and Vexen were kind of really pushy. Larxene was… really impatient. Marluxia kind of just… stood there and dripped rosepetals. Axel told me it was normal, later, so I didn't think too much about it." Roxas paused. "I guess… Axel was the one who did most of it. Telling me what stuff was."

"…You got along well."

Roxas considered this. "…I guess so. I can't even remember what we were really fighting about. Pretty stupid of me, huh?"

Riku didn't reply. It was weird, hearing it from their side. As far as he had been concerned, he had been fighting and trying to kill monsters determined to do pretty much the same to him. But… it was almost like some part of them… some part of Roxas, at least, sounded human..

Even if he wasn't Sora. Looked nothing like him.

Finishing his bread quietly, Riku reached for the box of nuggets he'd set on the counter. And almost unwillingly, he glanced up at Roxas, looking quiet and… forlorn around the edges on his stool with the dim moonlight picking out blonde bits in his hair, but mostly shadowed. Just enough shadow to remind Riku who his Somebody was.

With an inward sigh, Riku tried to form words to sum up just how much he fucked up his own friendships in a vaguely advice-like manner. The idea that he would even have to do this was beyond ridiculous. So ridiculous he refused to think about it and the nagging little feeling he was going to regret it.

"…Best friends always have stupid fights… What matters is what you do about it."

"What I do about it?"

"If you want to stay friends or not."

And that was as far as Riku was willing to go on this little midnight confession, so he took the box of nuggets and started looking for a way to heat it up while Roxas apparently digested his words.

Just as he felt Axel's presence enter the room. "Now what are you two doing?"

Riku tensed, looking towards the redhead.

"Just seemed like so much fun I couldn't keep sleeping. Better make it up to me, Riku."

Riku offered him a fist. "I can knock you back out," He offered cooly. "Happily."

Axel 's eyebrow quirked up. "Keep saying stuff like that and I'll start to think you don't like me."

"I don't."

"Shame, I was going to offer to heat that up for you."

Riku frowned.

In the dark, Axel's grin was cat-like.

"Who do you think I am?"

"I don't want to know."

Neku stared at the blackened remains of substances on the counter.

The white-haired guy looked annoyed, while the blonde seemed vaguely apologetic. The tallest of the three was sitting by the window he'd just opened to let all the smoke out- something they only thought of when Neku came crashing into the kitchen, thinking the apartment was on fire.

The good news was that there wasn't really any lasting damage. Sure the counter was charred and sure he's pretty sure he woke a few neighbors up, but all in all it could've been a lot worse than a bunch of idiots who didn't know what a smoke alarm was _(Roxas had frowned. "Why do you need an alarm to tell if there's smoke?)_.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Neku wished for patience. "On second thought, tell me what happened."

"Axel set a box of food on fire."

"Hey, don't look at me, you're the one who wanted to heat it up."

"I never said anything about _setting it on fire_."

"You _burned _it?" Neku demanded, frowning.

"…Preeetty much, yeah?" Axel said casually, fixing the fit of his glove.

Great. Mr.H had saddled him with pyromaniac rustics in cosplay.

His eyes landed on the luminous numbers on a wall clock, a little above some shelves. It read 6:35 a.m. It was light out. Or would be soon.

"Forget about it. We can just walk outside until it clears out."

Then he remembered something. "You guys…wouldn't happen to have any spare clothing on you? Anything on under there?" Neku gestured towards his chest vaguely.

Axel shrugged, unzipping his coat partway.

"…Guess that's a no." Neku sighed, starting up the stairs. "Come on. I'm not going to walk you three around even Shibuya dressed like that. "

"Dressed like what…?" Roxas asked nobody in particular, after a pause.

Axel shrugged. "I'm guessing the Superior wouldn't have made it big in these parts."

Riku stopped, one boot on the first step of the stair. "He made these uniforms?" The idea of Xemnas sitting with a needle in hand and a coat over lap was somehow disturbing.

"Hell no. I think he got Xaldin to do it."

"…That was more disturbing than I expected."

Axel grinned. "He does embroidery, too."

Neku yanked his wardrobe closet open, wincing when a torrent of clothes collapsed onto the floor. Damn, he had to get Shiki to stop using his closet as storage space. He half-suspected she only did it on the off chance he'd be tempted to use some of it. No time like the present.

Crouching by the pile, he picked a few articles of clothing out at random. The blonde guy would be easy- they were practically the same size- but the redhead was… well he'd be a tight fit for any of these, so he'd have to find one of those oversized shirts they made for Beat.

"Hands out," Neku said briskly.

Roxas stretched his arms out obligingly, figuring it was faster not to ask.

"Ttry these." Neku glanced down. "The pants too, or Shiki will attack you on the streets."

"Shiki?" Riku voiced as Neku piled clothes on top of Roxas' arms. "Is that like the Noise that old man last night was asking about?"

"Mr.H isn't that old." Neku said immediately. "And no, but Noise won't mind getting a claw in you, either. Clothes work like armor once you're in the Game."

"They what?"

Neku sighed, wishing for patience again. He'd forgotten you needed it to deal with people. Joshua certainly hadn't done anything to his reserves. Time to borrow some old advice. "Shut up and take your pants off."

He glared at the other redhead when he opened his mouth for good measure. Not that this seemed to daunt him. "All three of us at once?" Axel asked, the amusement in his tone tipping over into a leer.

"We're all guys here, just suit up and we'll go."

Axel shrugged, stripping first. Riku couldn't exactly hesitate after that, so he unzipped his own uniform, yanking it off his shoulders and accepting the next bundle of clothes Neku thrust at them. Roxas followed suit.

The whole thing would've passed without incident if Axel hadn't whistled lowly. "Not bad, Riku."

Riku scowled, half in a crisp sleeveless white shirt that actually made his skin seem more… well, skin-like and less alabaster. A subtle design of silk embroidery depicted a dragon twisting all over the cloth.

Axel hadn't bothered to put his own on, yet. Lean whipcord muscles were sculpted down onto a tapering waist. He held a black ribbed turtleneck and what looked to be a red leather jacket.

Frowning, Riku buttoned the vest up and reached for the pants, stopping when his eyes fell on the label sticking out.

"This isn't funny." Riku said flatly. He tossed it back into the pile. He could walk around in his current pants and boots just fine.

"What are you talking about?" Neku demanded. At Riku's wordless stare at the label, Axel picked it up, reading the name of the pants' design.

" '_Darkness'_. Seems like a perfect fit to me, Riku." He waved the offending article a bit. "Let's see if the pants fit the man."

Riku made a gesture.

"You first, princess," Axel shot back, still sounding amused.

Roxas blinked, poking his head and an arm out of the dark blue and white shirt Neku had given him.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing much, just some unresolved issues Riku's got." Axel smirked, tugging both the thin turtleneck and the much longer dress shirt on. A good thing, if the way the turtleneck kept trying to inch up from his waist was any indication. Neku clearly didn't have anything in over six feet. The red and black went well with his complexion, picking out the same dramatic colors in his hair and around his eyes.

"Your blindfold," Neku said suddenly, having decided not to push the whole pants issue. He couldn't let this one go, though. He was surprised the other boy had managed to keep it on this long, really. He'd even managed to climb the stairs and everything. After a moment's pause, Neku added, "_Can _you see?"

Riku stopped moving.

"I can look through it."

"You look retarded with it, you mean," Neku scoffed. "Take it off. You look like a ninja-wannabe from an afternoon kiddie show. All three of you are enough of a freakshow on your own."

Axel made a sound that was suspiciously like a snort of laughter.

"Freakshow is what'd happen if I took it off," Riku said.

"Look, if you just need something to hide your eyes, you can use these." Neku rummaged briefly in a drawer and presented Riku with a pair of thin dark shades. "You'll stand out less."

Riku looked at them for a long moment before taking them and exiting the room without a word.

"…He can strip in my room, but he needs privacy to put on shades?"

"Riku's just a deilcate little flower that way," Axel agreed.

Neku sort of thought it was kind of hard to call all those sculpted biceps and triceps 'delicate', but the way Riku almost-but-not-quite stomped out of the room did remind him a little of a huffy girl.

It was almost eight by the time they got to The Scramble, a hodge podge of criss-crossing pedestrian lanes strewn almost haphazardly over a large, fairly open-area road. Several traffic lights- much taller and sleeker than anything like it Roxas had ever seen- dotted the space at strategic places.

Traffic was light. There weren't a lot of people around this early on a Saturday except for the occasional jogger, office workers on their way to work, and early morning shoppers waiting for the 104 shopping mall to open.

"You three aren't from around here, are you?" Neku asked as they crossed.

"We just got to this world last night." Roxas volunteered when nobody else seemed to be inclined to answer.

"…'This world'?" Neku echoed, unsure if the other boy was just being sarcastic.

"Yeah," Roxas affirmed.

"…So you're from another world… does that make you guys Composers, too?"

"Wouldn't know a G clef from a tambourine," Axel supplied cheerfully, working a couple of kinks out of his neck.

"…You don't know about The Game, either?" Neku asked, brows arching in genuine surprise.

"Mister… Hanekoma, right? Told us a bit of it. Not enough to really tell what's in it besides Heartless and Noise." Roxas frowned, tugging on the laces of the light blue hoodie he'd donned over a white shirt with black sleeves and a pattern in monochrome at the hems. The morning was still pretty chilly. He wasn't sure how Riku could walk around with most of his arms exposed like that- but the… guy had somehow produced a piece of white cloth to wrap around his left forearm. Roxas hadn't seen it when Neku was picking out their things. His other arm was bound with a black bandage.

Riku might have switched out his blindfold for a pair of very dark shades, but he didn't seem to want to let go, either. Roxas could just about see a flash of gold and long lashes when Riku turned his head, but most of the time, his expression was just as unreadable as before.

"It's… a game of souls. You have to fight Noise and Reapers in a whacked out ghost dimension of Shibuya. Food and clothes give you strength. It goes on for a week, if you're lucky."

"And if we aren't?" Axel raised an eyebrow.

"You stay dead."

"…We have to die to play the Game?" Riku asked sharply.

"Normally. I don't know about you three if you came from another world, though." He paused. "Just a little tip- if you see a scrawny snot of a guy in a white shirt running toward you, punch him in the face."

"Why?"

"Trust me, it's for a good cause."

"So what's a Composer?"

"The guy who made up the whole Game. Masterminds everything."

Axel snorted. "Sadistic bastard, isn't he?" It sounded like he'd probably feel right at home having tea with Xemnas in The World That Never Was.

Neku smirked faintly. "Mr.H says he exists for a reason. Just don't know if it's a _good_ reason."

The flow of conversation was stopped when all four of them became conscious of an unusual level of noise. Feminine noise.

"Great. Don't tell me that bogus Prince is around," Neku muttered darkly, scanning the grounds in front of 104. Nothing. No crisp-like-silk blond head or impossibly ruffled dress shirt anywhere.

Riku shrugged. "Let's just go."

"Neku? You're up early!" Two girls walked up to the group. One of them had short black hair and glasses, dressed simply in jeans and blouse, but the other was clearly dressed to stand out in a flashy miniskirt, her hair a vague shade of red that reminded Riku of Kairi. But he was pretty sure this girl had dyed hers.

"I had company to tour." Neku shrugged, but something in his voice suggested the girls were his friends.

He got jabbed in the gut for his troubles. "Introduce us," the louder girl hissed.

"These are Shiki and Eri." Neku nodded to first the brunette, then the one who looked like Kairi.

"You'reShiki?" Roxas asked, remembering something.

The girl blinked at him. "Y-yeah. Why?"

"Neku said you attacked people with the wrong pants."

* * *

Neku's ear had turned a nice shade of red by the time Shiki was through with him.

"Stop sulking, you big baby," she admonished with a sniff. "And you let all three of them walk out like this?"

Rubbing his ear and rolling his eyes with familiar exasperation, Neku responded. "It was that or fight with them to get the other ones on.

"…Why did she grab his ear?" Roxas asked in a whisper in Axel's general direction.

"Girls do that when they're annoyed. Especially if they're older."

"Oh. Did… Did Larxene ever do that?'

Axel snorted. "We'd be so lucky. What's up, Roxas, the girl scaring you?"

Roxas frowned. " I don't think Larxene liked me very much…"

"That's because you're a squirt who's more important than she is."

Roxas looked at him, expression skeptical.

"Don't get me wrong- she can castrate a guy faster than you could sneeze, but she's no Key of Destiny."

"Isn't she the Savage Nymph?"

"Exactly."

* * *

Riku turned away from the duo who had apparently started to patch things up. If Axel thought Roxas' sudden receptivity was strange, he didn't seem to dare comment on it.

With nothing to do, his eyes automatically scanned the perimeter, lingering without thought on the deep shadows between buildings and under awnings, searching for the barest glimpse of golden eyes. This city. Shibuya. It was far from the modest town center they had back in Destiny Islands. But it was dirtier than the Islands had ever been, litter blown against lonely edges of buildings and graffitti and flyers posted everywhere.

"Hey, want one?" A light alto voice asked from his left.

The other girl—Eri, Neku had said- was holding up a canned drink.

Riku accepted cautiously, more to avoid making a scene than anything else. It was iced tea.

"So where are you guys from? Ever do any modeling work? I can't remember ever seeing any of you, though."

Riku tried not to back up a step. Eri, apparently, had no such reservations, stepping closer, hands behind her back and dangling the plastic bag that still held three more cans. The rest had apparently already been distributed.

"No," Riku said, finally, choosing to answer the easy question. There were no models on Destiny Islands. Unless you counted that one time Wakka and Tidus posed for a Blitzball photo contest. They got a prize for it, too- Blitzballs signed by their favorite athletes. Neither of them had let the balls out of their sight for weeks.

"Really? That's kind of a waste, didn't anyone ever tell you?"

"Tell me?"

"Well, you're gorgeous," Eri said blandly, a girl stating a fact. "That's kind of obvious, isn't it?"

"…Not really," Riku shrugged. Selphie had mentioned it once or twice, and Kairi had teased him about being the resident heartbreaker (it was strange, how those silly things seemed so ominously foretelling, now), but it had been a long time since Riku could bear to look in a mirror.

"Well if you're not busy or anything, think you could help us out a bit and model a few outfits?" Eri asked brightly, but there was a strange gleam in her eye that was… well, you didn't grow up with two girls like Selphie and Kairi without picking up when was a good time to run.

"We're not staying long."

"Eri!" Shiki came over, apparently done berating Neku. "I'm sure we can still work on Neku or Beat- we don't have to bother them about this…"

"But look at them! They were _made f_or those clothes you made!"

"Your designs," Shiki said almost absently, apparently used to the argument. "But we don't even know them very well! We couldn't possibly impose…" Shiki pushed up her black-framed glasses nervously.

Riku glanced around surreptitiously, wondering if there was a way out of this. Neku was a little away from them, hands tucked in pockets and smirk very, very amused.

* * *

Axel watched Riku fail at normal teenage interaction with a raised eyebrow. You'd think growing up with Sora would've given him better conversational skills. From the snatches of conversation the redhead could hear, the girls seemed to be aspiring fashion designers.

Roxas had lapsed into one of his silences, his gaze locked on the three Shibuyan teenagers and Riku.

"Hey, Axel."

"Yeah?"

"What are nightmares?"

"…What brought that on?"

"It's just something I heard," Roxas said evasively.

Axel looked at the can of coffee in his hands, popping it open and taking a sip.

"It's like a dream you want to escape but never do; because you're too scared and helpless to do anything about it."

"So… it's scary?" Roxas frowned into his own can of what appeared to be chocolate milk.

"Generally speaking," Axel drawled. "Not that we're supposed to really 'feel' fear or anything."

"So what is it like? Being scared?"

"Like you can't breathe and your mind is blank and like you're dying but you can't really die fast enough."

"Oh. Doesn't sound very good."

Axel leaned back against a lamp post.

"Yeah. It never is."

They spent the rest of the day just getting dragged all over Shibuya in the care of Neku and his girl friends, on the logic of familiarizing them with the terrain. Not that the Shibuyan half seemed to be too concerned about forewarned being forearmed. Halfway through, a broad-shouldered guy about Neku's age in a black beanie and a skateboard showed up with another girl- his little sister, apparently. Riku thought she was a little like Namine- something about the quiet knowing air about her. But then, Riku realized, he was probably looking a little too hard for ghosts that weren't there.

So he squeezed his hands in his pockets and tried not to think too hard about time and leads that weren't there.

Roxas had taken one look at the skateboard and was inexplicably drawn.

"Yo, you into 'boarding, too?" The skateboard guy- 'Beat' – said cheerfully, letting Roxas examine the curving lacquered wood on wheels that was his pride and joy.

"It looks like a lot of fun," Roxas admitted, having watched Beat sail in on his board right off a steel handrail.

Beat beamed and proceeded to embroil Roxas in an extensive discussion on his ride.

Axel couldn't remember Roxas ever having shown that much interest in anything that wasn't Seasalt ice cream. Then again, it wasn't like there was much time for anything else, after missions.

All the same, a few memories he had half forgotten stirred restlessly at the back of his mind.

It wasn't long until dark fell, prompting the group to head back to Neku's apartment to meet up with Mr. Hanekoma.

Neku looked back at his strange trio of houseguests as they filed back into the apartment, wondering if he'd see them again.

"Hey," Neku said suddenly. Three heads turned towards him curiously.

"I don't know how you guys will be able to get in, but in case you become Players, I guess I should tell you this." Pressing his knuckles to the furthest reaches inside his pockets, Neku paused a little awkwardly.

"You just have to trust your partner. No matter who it is. You're in it together the moment the Pact takes effect."

"The Pact?"

"It's like a contract. A really flashy contract. Two people enter a partnership and then you… light up like a Christmas tree, basically."

"Why?" Roxas asked, confused.

"Probably because the Composer likes shiny things," Neku said dryly.

Before anyone could say anything else, the doorbell rang.

"Alright, Neku?" Mr. Hanekoma asked cheerfully as he stepped inside, apparently finding the latch unlocked.

A corner of Neku's mouth lifted into a wry smile. "Yeah. They almost burned the house down, though."

Mr. Hanekoma grinned. "Should I ask?"

"We're ready," Riku interrupted smoothly.

Mr. Hanekoma ran an eye over their new clothes, supplemented with a few additions Shiki and Eri had insisted on. "All kitted up, then?"

Axel shrugged.

"Alright, let's go. You guys go first."

Riku paused, but squaring his shoulders, he walked past into the threshold of the door.

He barely felt the chop at the back of his neck, unable to react in time.

When Riku was aware of himself again, he was standing in the middle of a pulsing void.

Axel and Roxas were there with him. So were twenty or so people. All in various states of consciousness, from the blank looks in some of their eyes. It was slightly unnerving, after the tanks at Oblivion.

"… Oldest trick in the book," Axel groaned as he waded into consciousness, rubbing the back of his neck.

"…Think he killed us?" That was Roxas.

Mr. Hanekoma stepped into existence with palms out. "Almost. That was mostly just a little vibe tweaking. You can't see all of the UG the way you were then. Had to up your vibe."

"Is this the UG?"

"Yes and no," Mr. H admitted. "UG's just another plane of existence on Shibuya. You'll still see all the crowds of people and get into some of the shops, but they can't see you or touch you- outside of those shops."

The man looked at the watch strapped to his wrist as he finished explaining. "Looks like the Game's about to start any minute. Good luck. And remember what Neku said. He did win this Game for three weeks running."

"Three weeks?"

But Mr. Hanekoma was already gone.

"Welcome to the Reaper's Game," a boy- maybe fifteen or so- with dust-gray hair in waves around his face walked towards them. He was dressed in plain jeans and dress shirt, the top handful of buttons popped open. His pale face with half-lidded eyes was fixed with an almost whimsical smirk. The expression of a guy who knew a lot and didn't particularly care if you needed it more.

"I've been to happier funerals," Axel observed, though his hands were loose at his sides, waiting expectantly.

The boy chuckled and shrugged. "It'll start soon enough. I heard there's never a dull moment. The price might hurt a bit, though."

"Price?"

"An entrance fee. Could be anything. Whatever is most precious to you."

Riku froze and Axel barked a short laugh. "Yeah? I don't think I've seen mine in years."

The boy smiled, eyes lazily sharp as he swept his glance around the room. "Sometimes the next best thing is just good enough."

And then there was darkness.

Axel woke up on the Scramble with absolutely no recollection of even going to sleep. It was just creepy. Like someone had wiped away a part of his memory. A part of his Not-_Life._

On the other hand, he couldn'treally remember the last time he'd slept so much like a rock. If he'd really slept. Stretching out a crick in his neck, he automatically looked to see where his companions were. smoked trembling stomach. ay Riku liked it and liesurely stroking Riku'lly rubbing against air, hips undulating on Roxas'e the

Riku was just beside him, sprawled on his front, the pretty silver hair in gleaming twists all over the asphalt like a princess struck down. After pricking a finger on a spinning wheel.

It took him a moment scanning the immediate perimeter to realize that Roxas wasn't with them. And exactly why that was. Something almost chilly slid down Axel's spine.

"_Fuck_."

Riku groaned lowly, waking up. "Wha…?"

Axel replied with a line of rapidfire expletives that almost managed to make Riku impressed. If he wasn't pissed off as hell.

When Axel descended into what appeared to be an almost sulky rage- Riku decided enough was enough.

And punched him.

"What the hell was that for?" Axel glared. It was easily the cleanest thing to come out of his mouth in the past ten minutes.

Riku thrust Soul Eater's blunt edge straight at Axel's throat. "Get over yourself and complete the mission."

Axel opened his mouth- possibly to ask very snidely if Riku forgot that Roxas- who quite possibly held all of Riku's fate along with the rest of the world's (but really who gave a damn about them) and was responsible for Axel's possibly impending duskhood- was _not here_.

Then he saw the look on Riku's face.

And decided to let it slide.

"I can sense Heartless here, too."

Axel scowled, running his fingers in the thick hair at the nape of his neck irritably. Then he closed his eyes once. And gave Riku his most disturbing grin.

Later, Riku would reflect, that he sort of wished Axel was a little less annoying. He might even be halfway likeable, otherwise.

_-To Be Continued-_

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Well this was a long time in coming and I have my doubts on the point of it all, but I thought I'd update. o7

I've tried to make this friendly for people who don't know The World Ends With You (though knowing it should make things very amusing), but I know that gets pretty frustrating all the same, so here's a link to the characters. Spoilers for characters are contained therein, of course, but since TWEWY was released some years ago, it'll have to do.

http: / twewy . wikia . com / wiki / Characters

If you're interested in knowing more about twewy, click around the wikia using the link from above (remove the spaces). The summary of the game would be something like "so now you're a dead emokid. time to dress up and kick around monsters and hey maybe you can come back to life!"

For those who /are/ familiar with the game, the following might be interesting for you- concept wardrobe from the TWEWY catalogue:

Roxas

Haramitsu (158)  
Togenkyo (163)  
Waffle Necktie

Riku

Negative/Positive Polo  
White Dragon Tee  
Midnight

Karma (J of the M shoulder bag)

Axel  
Hip Snake North Wind Concerto  
Red Jacket + natural puppy turtleneck or Lollipop's Parka

Everyone: Biker Gloves

Misc:

WB Darkness (223)

**Don't forget to review if you like it! :)** I'd love to hear from you. And tell me what you don't like, anyway, short of pairings. Nothing I can do about those, I'm afraid.


End file.
